SAN MARCOS: Grant to help boost number of math, science graduates

A grant from the National Science Foundation will help Cal State
San Marcos and Palomar College draw more students to study science,
technology, engineering and math, and boost the number who graduate
in those majors.

The grant, split between the two institutions, provides $1.95
million over five years to increase the number of graduates in
those fields, said Charles De Leone, chairman of the university's
physics department and principle investigator for the grant.

De Leone said the grant aims to address national shortfalls in
the scientific and technical workforce, adding that while jobs in
the field are plentiful, qualified candidates aren't.

"It's something our economy relies on, so unless you have the
educated workforce to go to these companies, it's going to be tough
for us," he said. "It's become an international competition for
scientific and engineering talent."

To meet that demand, De Leone said, the grant aims to double the
number of transfers from Palomar College to CSUSM in the fields of
applied physics, biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, chemistry,
computer science and math by 2016.

It also seeks to increase majors in the university's College of
Science and Math by 50 percent by that time, and raise its number
of graduates by two-thirds.

Part of the funds will be used to recruit students through
"outreach to high schools, community colleges, active-duty military
and veterans," De Leone said. "Somebody who can field-strip the
electronics on a helicopter probably would make a good engineer,
and we don't know why we don't see more of them."

The grant will fund "gateway" science and math classes at Camp
Pendleton, and introduce high school students in the region to
science education and careers.

"When students aren't exposed to science at the elementary,
middle school and high school level ... they don't get excited
about science, they don't investigate those fields as possible
careers," he said.

Getting students interested early will also help them complete
the high school coursework they need to succeed in math and science
at the college or university, he said.

The grant will not only direct students to the programs, but
ensure they graduate in those disciplines, he said.

It will fund a science tutoring center at the university to
complement the writing and math labs already available, he said. A
similar science resource center is in the works at Palomar
College.

And it will introduce "active learning" techniques in beginning
courses, he said, such as instantaneous polling programs that allow
students to use cellphones or other mobile devices to answer
questions in class, then receive immediate feedback.

"We want our instructors to have access to cutting-edge science
approaches," De Leone said. "We should be leaders in this, both at
Palomar and CSUSM."

In a molecular cell biology class at the university on Tuesday,
students practiced a technique to amplify a gene, then placed it in
bacteria to produce specific proteins.

It's a method used to study metabolic diseases in humans, and
valuable to students' future careers, said Mary Spinharney, a
biotechnology and cellular molecular biology major.

"We'll be able to understand it and put it on a resume," said
Spinharney, 24. "It prepares us for either jobs or further
education."

Informing students of the links between science courses and
careers would attract more students to those disciplines, she
said.

Her lab partner, biochemistry major Jamie Do, 20, said expanding
the university's labs would also generate interest, and ease
students' anxieties about math and science.

"Science can be terrifying because there's a lot of details we
don't understand, and being able to see it directly clarifies
that," she said.